"We can't do this. This doesn't work." This is what Michael Eisner - the then-Chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company - told Thomas Schumacher, Peter Schneider and Julie Taymor back in August of 1996. That the stage version of Disney's acclaimed animated feature, "The Lion...

There's always a "How'd they do that?" moment in a Disney stage production . In "Beauty and the Beast," it was when the performer playing the Beast first began spinning like a propeller and then transformed into a handsome prince right in front of the audience. For "Mary...

So when the good people of Pittsburgh head out for the Benedum Center later this week to catch the North American touring company of Disney "Newsies ," will they be seeing an exact duplicate of the Tony Award-winning show that ran for 2 1/2 years on Broadway? Nope. And you have Thomas Schumacher...

You'd think -- what with "Newsies" Broadway run coming to a close this past Sunday afternoon -- that the crowd outside of the Nederlander Theatre would have been a bit blue. Photo by Nancy Stadler But that wasn't really the case. The folks who were lined up along 41st Street yesterday...

So how long has Walt Disney Animation Studios been trying to bring " The Snow Queen " to the big screen? Would you believe 70 years? Concept painting for the aborted Hans Christian Andersen bio pic that Walt Disney and Samuel Goldwyn once considered collaborating on. Copyright Disney Enterprises...

It was quite the night at the Minskoff Theatre last night. As both the creatives and former cast members of Disney's "The Lion King" came together for a one-night-only event which celebrated the 15th anniversary of the Broadway production of this acclaimed musical . There were lots of tender...

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Photo by Nancy Stadler Following its acclaimed run at the Papermill Playhouse last Fall, Disney Theatrical Productions' " Newsies: The Musical " opened at NYC's Nederlander Theatre last night for a special limited engagement. The press lines up to get...

I'm sure that you're already familiar with that Audio Animatronic version of Abraham Lincoln which appears in The Hall of Presidents at WDW 's Magic Kingdom . Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved And maybe you've seen that cool, new NextGen version of Honest Abe which...

So why exactly should you buy " Two Guys Named Joe: Master Animation Storytellers Joe Grant & Joe Ranft " (Disney Editions, August 2010)? Because this new John Canemaker book not only does a brilliant job of paying tribute to these animation legends, this 192-page hardcover contains one...

The juggernaut that is Disney’s “The Lion King” just rolls on and on and on. The stage musical version of this Academy Award-winning animated feature isn’t just one of the most popular shows on Broadway. It’s now one of the most beloved pieces of entertainment in the world. Want proof? Then let’s take...

It’s the Hans Christian Andersen story that Walt Disney almost put into production back in the 1940s (as part of a live action / animated co-production with Samuel Goldwyn ). This is one of Kay Nielsen's Little Mermaid concept paintings for that aborted Hans Christian Andersen feature from the 1940s...

Do you want the Disneyana fan on your holiday shopping list to have a very "Mary" Christmas? Then be sure and pick them up a copy of Brian Sibley & Michael Lassell's " Mary Poppins: Anything Can Happen If You Let It " (Disney Editions, December 2007). Subtitled "The Story Behind the Journey from...

How's this for a somewhat cruel irony? On the very first day that "How Does the Show Go On? An Introduction to the Theater" (Disney Editions, November 2007) was officially available for purchase (i.e. November 27th), the show was NOT going on. As in: 28 of Broadway's theaters were still dark due to Local...

Well, it wasn't quite how Disney Theatrical had hoped the 10th anniversary of Broadway's "The Lion King" would play out. By that I mean: The Mouse had literally had this celebration in the works for months. With the kick-off happening 'way back in June, when this Tony Award -winning musical had its South...